Updates: Timer, Triops, and Tempeh

Timer: Setting the timer for the pizza dough's rise!

Here she is! Cast iron double griddle in the background.  That thing makes a MEAN pizza! If you don't mind a rectangular or oval pizza, go get one, it's so much better than a pizza stone.

I had a serious craving for green peppers and vegan pepperoni.  I doused my slices in jalapeno olive oil as well from Taste of Olive.  Fruity, grassy, and mildly spiced (really! it almost wasn't hot at all, they must have only used the flesh and not any seeds to make the oil) I can't recommend this oil highly enough.   The left half is sparsely topped to ensure last minute variables would be covered (kid says he wants plain, then pepperoni, so  had to cover my bases :-)).

Triops: Well, there's good news and bad news.  Good news is that we had two strong hatchlings from our second round of Triops growing.  Then, it was down to one (two days ago).  We think the bigger one ate the smaller one since we couldn't find his body! THEN, as the directions called for on or around Day 8 (for us, yesterday was Day 11) we tried to transfer the remaining one (he was pretty big and seemed hardy) to the tank from his little petri dish as the directions called for.  We did that, knowing he needed more room, however, we couldn't maintain the temperature of the tank water at 74 degrees, the warmest we could get it was around 70-72.  We figured we'd give it a go, and tried to acclimatize him to the cooler water in his little Petri dish first, then transferred him, but he bit the dust in a mere hour or so.  It was just too cold. Poor guy (or girl!).  We will try again when the ambient temperature is warmer (spring or summer). It's just too hard to warm water with a light bulb in winter! RIP "T," RIP.

Tempeh:

I mailed in my order for the tempeh spores! I have no idea how long it will take to get them. I'll keep you posted, haha.

P.S. I have an early birthday present to myself coming in the mail...it's cooking related (of course).  I may get it today!

Santa Plunder and The Jan Plan

It's that time of year again, time to finish all the unpacking, de-decorating and putting away from the holidays.  It is also time to look at what we did over our winter vacations and to really examine our awesome pressies AND to plan some fun projects for the next three months of winter, aka, The Jan(uary) Plan.

So, what did I get from Santa this year?

What IS that big blue box, Santa??

Oh My Goodness! It's the SoyaPower Plus Soy Milk (or any bean milk, grain milk or nut milk) Maker!

Looks like I got me Jan Plan Project#1: Home Made Soy (and Almond and Oat!) Milk!

But, wait! What did Santa Dad get me for Christmas?

A ton of his time and effort, that's what! Sheesh! What the hell? It took about forever to disassemble my little refrigerator, and it took both my dad and me to figure it out.  Look at all those holes in the back of it, hardware was screwed into every one of them, I ended up with a HUGE bag of stuff, the fans, main board, on and on, all the electrical bits and pieces of a small refrigerator were really something to behold!  We were going to wire up a baseboard thermostat to the existing wiring as the thermostat for my desired project, but it just got too complicated, so we ended up getting a plug in thermostat instead.  Anyway, we did this all to turn my now empty and unobstructed mini fridge into...drum roll please...a TEMPEH INCUBATOR!  Huzzah! 

Jan Plan Project #2: I'm going to MAKE MY OWN TEMPEH.  Oh, yes.

Once I get me some tempeh spores, I'll be in business. (You actually have to write to this company to order them, how quaint!) It pains me to add tempeh to my grocery list at this point, but I'll only have to be buying it from the store for just a little while longer...

And, the pièce de résistance, a Griswold #10 Cast Iron Fry Pan given to me by my Mom B. The pan is from my husband's great grandmother! Oh, momma!!

Here is the original Griswold marking on the back of the pan.  Below it, you can just make out the mark, "Erie," which, along with the Griswold "cross" design, indicates the pan was manufactured between 1906 and 1912, which makes perfect sense given that it was my husband's great grandmother's pan, reportedly used for making some kind of delicious, old-fashioned maple candy...mmmmmm!

Jan Plan Project #3: Recondition heirloom cast iron pan.  Oh joy!! So excited.  I have never done a reconditioning project with cast iron, since I use modern, Lodge cast iron, pictured here (and in many of my on-the-stove shots all throughout my blog! It gets a lot of use):

You can see the subtle differences in the styling between the modern Lodge pan here and the heirloom Griswold pan above.  I really, really want to get that Griswold up and running on my stove top!  I think The Pan Man can help me! 

Oh, and of course, some of you may be familiar with my last post which involves...

Jan Plan Project #4: Grow a disgusting pet for my son (T. longicaudatis, aka, "Triops"). I already have three hatchlings this time around, and no, I don't plan to cook them, though some people want to! Check out the "fan mail" on the Triops site, scroll about 14 Fan Letters down, it's the one in the large font. Exotic, indeed! They probably taste like shrimp, lady, but don't do it! ;-)

I have to plan my garden, too, Jan Plan #5: Gardening Stuff.  More to come on that one.  In the meantime, start seed shopping!

What do you all have planned for the winter months??

Triops-A-Day, Days 1-7

Rabbits have two eyes, whales have two eyes, eagles have two eyes, but Triops has three eyes!  They Might Be Giants got us kinda hooked on thinking about the Triops.  Don't you love his little dance? So, we got ourselves a grow kit to check out the real Triops.  OMG!! Disgusting but strangely alluring...

I actually considered starting another blog to deal with my new and disgusting tiny friend, the Triops (Triops Longicaudatis), but decided to post about it here.  Apologies to those who are looking for a different kind of "recipe." :-)  I have plenty more of those to come!

We started our Triops kit the day after coming back from our winter vacation.  Our start date coincided perfectly with the Artclash Collective's "Fun-a-Day" project (Philly based, YEAH BABY!) that is taking place throughout January, which I found through one of my FB friends (Kristin Lajeunesse) who is doing a "Dance-a-Day" project to coincide with her travel the country for awesome vegan eats project--I love Kristin!

Anyhoo, back to prehistoric crustaceans.

About Triops for those of you without small boys :-):

Basically, T. longicaudatis is an ancient aquatic pest who lives in "flash" freshwater pools and resembles a horseshoe crab.  T. longicaudatis (commonly known as "Triops") is a crustacean of the Brachiopod class (same class as brine shrimp or "sea monkeys").  Kingdom, Phlyum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.  Remember your evolutionary biology, folks? Anyway, lots more info about Triops here, where they grow the eggs in a lab (not harvesting them from the environment).  And here is a handy school curriculum (second grade level) of the Triops growing project created by the talented folks at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES (holla, J&J!).  You can order your very own Triops kit on amazon, should you be so inclined.

The box claims, to grow, "just add water!" Um, no, not exactly.

Jan. 2nd, 2012, Day 1:

 One must use ONLY Spring Water, not distilled, not reverse osmosis, and not deionized water!

 Spring water and 1/8 tsp of "crushed" organic carrot in T's tiny tank! 

 I thought little T. might feel more at home with a tropical tree nearby.

 Temp must be maintained somewhere between 74 and 85 degrees.  That was my first problem.  Not hot enough.  

 So, got me a little greenhouse effect going.  Also had to cover the dish so my cat wouldn't drink the Triops! (Doesn't that dish look suspiciously like a cat water bowl?)

 My plastic bag greenhouse worked nicely to raise the temperature.  I ended up cutting out fairly large holes in the top of the bag so T. could get more air, and I was still able to maintain the temp right around 74 to 76 degrees.  Perfect!

 Now T's home is ready, so it's time to add the eggs! Those TINY specks of dust right in the center of the paper in the crease are the Triops eggs.

 Eggs are added! Now, it's time to see if anyone is hatching.  Days 2-3, we had no hatching at all.  It is winter here, and the lower ambient air temperature did not help with the hatching.  Also, I had been covering the dish at night, and it was cooling off WAY too much, so I then ended up covering half of the dish to give T. rest and also to allow the water to stay heated.  

The magnifying glass that comes with the kit totally sucks.  But, it makes one look all scientist-like when wielding it.  

On Day 4, we noticed we had a tiny Triops swimming around!

Do you see him? Look right at the biggest piece of carrot directly in the center of the frame and you will see a little white speck with another tiny white speck attached (it is actually food stuck on his tail) on the right hand side of the carrot piece.  See him??

He was going along just fine from Day 4 through Day 6, eating his disgusting detritus suspension (that I had to make, ewe) and swimming around looking very pleased, indeed.  T. was a happy camper.

Well, I killed him today (Day 7).  The directions say to clean the dish on Day 4, and our dish wasn't even very dirty at all (we only hatched one single Triops out of 18 eggs, so he wasn't making very much T. poopy).  I waited until Day 6 to clean the bowl water (yesterday) and I think disrupting his substratum really pissed him off and killed him dead.  We mourned our little guy.  SO...

We are starting again tonight! Wish me luck! Going to add the eggs in another hour or so once I get the tiny tank up to temperature.  Got me a few more tricks in my bag now (how to maintain water temp overnight and how NOT to clean his little tank unless absolutely necessary) , so I think we are going to have more success this time.  And, because they are awesome, I sent my nephews a Triops kit, too, (hi X&G!!) so maybe they will have some more tricks for me once they get going with their kit!

Are any of you doing a Fun-A-Day project??